Netflix cancels Gentefied
The half-hour dramedy chronicled the lives of three Mexican-American cousins and their grandfather in a rapidly changing Los Angeles
Netflix has opted not to bring Gentefied back for a third season, Deadline reports. The series—created by Marvin Lemus & Linda Yvette Chávez—tracked the lives of three young Mexican-American adults and their grandfather in Los Angeles, trying to balance the pressures of increasing gentrification against the lucrative draw of the American dream.
Gentefied got its original debut back in 2016, showing off its first few episodes at Sundance. Netflix picked it up a few years later, expanding the series out to. ultimately, 18 episodes. The show’s second season aired all 8 of its episodes on November 10, 2021, which will now serve as the end date for its run on the streamer.
Here are some excerpts from TV Editor Danette Chavez’s review of the show’s first season, highlighting its strengths, and the tonal inconsistencies that kept the series—which starred Joaquín Cosío, J.J. Soria, Karrie Martin Lachney, and Carlos Santos—from reaching its full potential:
Gentefied succeeds as a “love letter” to the Chicanx community in Los Angeles, highlighting the hybrid language, portions of history, and the (occasionally contentious) meeting of cultures. But the half-hour dramedy often struggles to tell a cohesive story across its 10-episode first season, hindered by hair-trigger turns from pointed commentary and life-or-death-stakes to broad humor. Like its characters, Gentefied doesn’t have to choose one domain over the other, but its heartwarming story would only benefit from evening out the balance of silliness and melodrama…
Though it’s not quite as assured in its storytelling as Vida, Gentefied still represents just as significant a development in shows made for and by Mexicans and Mexican Americans—a roster that’s still woefully short. Lemus and Chávez have also introduced a new layer to stories of human migration, which they remind us is founded as much in desire as it is necessity. By telling such specific narratives, they’re broadening the definition of not just what it means to be Mexican or Chicanx, but what it means to be American. Gentefied may come up short on focus, but not purpose.